The present invention relates to a fastening or locking device for openable and closable side clips or clamps of antiskid chains for motor vehicle tires, in which to each end of a side clip is fixed an end portion with a platelike body which, in the fitted state, is oriented substantially parallel to the tire side. On each platelike body is formed a hook and a hooking-in opening is provided in such a way that the hook of one body can be hooked into the hooking-in opening of the other body in the locking position.
Numerous fasteners for antiskid chain side clips are known, the construction of the fasteners being in part also dependent on the construction or design of the complete chain or the inner side clip. Thus, e.g. clamping fasteners are known, which are operated from the outside of the tire (clamping chain fasteners). Although in the case of such fasteners there is no need for the operator, after fitting the chain to grasp round the vehicle tire for closing the clip, such fasteners still suffer from the disadvantage that following the first fitting and tightening the vehicle must be moved forward by a small amount and then retightening of the fastener is necessary.
However, other fasteners are known, which do not have to be operated from the outside of the tire and which essentially comprise the provision of two individual end pieces, which positively hook in one another in the fastening position. In the simplest construction, one end piece is constructed as a hook and the plane, within which the hook shape is formed, is directed substantially parallel to the clamping plane of the side clip, whilst the other end piece is in the form of a correspondingly shaped ring, which can be manually hung into the hook. It has already been proposed that the actual hook be constructed as a flat element engaging on the tire side and the hook is also to be provided in the form of a flat element constructed at right angles to the ring plane. However, these known hook fasteners only lead to a reliable fastening or locking action if, on bringing together the two elements, the ring is not located on the back of the hook, because then the desired hooking effect cannot occur and this is certainly possible in the case of incorrect or rash use.
In order to obviate this disadvantage, a hook fastener has already been proposed in which the two end pieces fixed to the ends of the side clip have in each case both a hook and a hooking-in opening, so that it is unimportant during the fastening movement how the two end pieces cover one another in the fastening position. As said end portion can assume the function of a hook and that of a hooking-in opening, a fastening action is always ensured, independently of how the two end pieces are relatively juxtaposed during the fastening movement. In this known fastener, the hooks are constructed in that the body of each end piece is bent over in the form of a hook at its end facing the other end piece, so that when the two end pieces converge during the fastening movement the two hooks run against one another by means of their round front sides and consequently there is a lateral deflection of the hooks in such a way that subsequently the two end pieces perform the remaining fastening movement in juxtaposed manner until the end piece located on the side of the tire engages with its hook in the hooking-in opening formed in the juxtaposed end piece. Although the known fastener operates in a safe and reliable manner, it still has a relatively large overall width. If the latter is to be reduced, configurations are necessary, which require components having relatively complicated shapes leading to a more complicated construction.
As in the development of modern vehicles, there is ever less space between the tire sides on the one hand and other mechanical components of the vehicle on the other, so that for fitting an antiskid chain the fastener of the inner side clip must have a minimum fastener width (i.e. lateral extension away from the tire side), the problem of the present invention is to so further develop a fastener of the aforementioned type that it has a particularly limited width, but still a particularly simple construction.